• Home  //
  • news  //
  • GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series News

Welcome to Homestead - Rolex Series Updates!

Oct. 10, 2009

HOMESTEAD, Fla. - The Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series rolls into Homestead-Miami Speedway on Oct. 8 - 10 for the season-ending race, the Grand Prix of Miami. With three Daytona Prototype teams in contention for the championship title, the on-track competition is sure to be intense. Check back here throughout the weekend for updates, notes and quotes.

Werner Does His Time, Shares the Crown (Updated Saturday at 2:15 p.m.)

Leh Keen won't be alone on the stage at the Hard Rock Casino Monday night - Dirk Werner completed 30 minutes in the No. 87 Farnbacher Loles Porsche to earn his points. It's the German's second title - he won GT for the team in 2007.

Keen Takes Share of GT Title (Updated Saturday at 2 p.m.)

Leh Keen captured a share of the 2009 Acxiom GT championship by completing 30 minutes in the No. 87 Farnbacher Loles Porsche GT3. That eliminated Kelly Collins, the only other driver eligible to defeat either Keen or Dirk Werner. Now, Werner needs to drive 30 minutes to share the crown with his teammate. This is Keen's first title, while Werner also won the 2007 championship with Farnbacher Loles.

"My stint was pretty eventless," Keen said. "I'm very excited, especially for the team, they've done an awesome job this year."

Oregonian Wins Foose Flex Giveaway (Updated Saturday at 1:18 p.m.)

Bruce Winn of Hubbard, Oregon asked his boss at work to give him a week off if he was the winner of the Pirelli-sponsored Ford Flex giveaway. Good thing he asked, because Winn drew the key labled lucky No. 7 and it activated the alarm  to announce him as the winner of the season-long contest.

Winn, accompanied by Patty Sweet, will now drive the car back to Oregon. He's already checked his GPS - he's got 3,400 miles - 50 hours - of driving ahead to get the new car back home.

Hot rod legend Chip Foose designed the Flex, and signed over the paperwork to Winn before giving the command to start the engines for Saturday's race.

"I've followed the Rolex Series all year on SPEED and entered the contest every time until I won," Winn said. "I'm excited. This is a dream come true."

It's a Hot One! (Updated Saturday at 1:08 p.m.)

The green flag has waved for the Grand Prix of Miami - 91 degrees with a heat index of 101.

Bacardi, Plumb Announce KONI Program (Updated Saturday at noon)

Rum Bum racing will return to Grand-Am in 2010, fielding a BMW M3 in the KONI Sports Car Challenge. College freshman Gian Bacardi of Miami will co-drive with Matt Plumb, with championship-winning crew chief Joe Varde directing the Florida-based team.

The team will race a Fall Line Motorsports-built BMW M3 E92.

"It's a good, solid car," Varde said. "With the Mustangs and the Camaros coming in, you've got to have a V-8 in KONI today."

Plumb coached the 19-year-old driver this past season to success in amateur competition.

"Gian faces a steep learning curve, but he's driven so well so far," Plumb said.

Luis Bacardi's Rum Bum, which sponsored a Daytona Prototype in 2008, will sponsor his son's team.

Buoniconti Gets Ride in Daytona Prototype (Updated Saturday at 10:10 a.m.)

Marc Buoniconti, president of the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis and the Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis, rode with Wayne Taylor in the Pirelelli two-seater Daytona Prototype Saturday morning at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Buoniconti sustained a spinal cord injury in a 1985 football game while playing for the Citadel. While recovering from the injuries that left him paralyzed from the neck down, he committed his energy to raising the funds for the Miami Project.

"It was awesome," Buoniconti said after the ride. "You try to appreciate it when you're watching it on TV - and I've been involved with racing for a long time when my dad was with US Tobacco - but getting in the car and feeling it liek that is totally different. I mean, under braking and under power in the corners with the G-forces was way more than I expected. I kept telling Wayne not to worry about me.

"He said he was going about 70-percent, so I can only imagine going 80-90 percent. Maybe I can talk him into that for next year."

Also getting a ride with Taylor was legendary hot rod designer Chip Foose, who will be awarding a one-of-a-kind Ford Flex that he designed to a lucky fan later Saturday morning.

Buoniconti is the son of NFL Hall of Famer Nick Buoniconti, who anchored the defense on the greatest football team of all time, the undefeated 1972 Super Bowl champion Miami Dolphins.

Roush Qualifies Seventh (Updated Friday at 4:20 p.m.)

Kevin Roush qualified seventh in the No. 48 Miller Barrett Racing Porsche GT3. Bryce Miller co-drives the Marquis Jet/IPC/Total-sponsored car.

"It's hot as ever, given we only did six or eight laps, to come out of the car completely drenched and probably 10 pounds lighter from water loss," Roush said. "The car was good; I'm really proud of the team. Everybody worked hard, put their heads together, talked through about a million different scenarios. We just changed a couple of little things before qualifying and the car was better. It's kind of half driver changing his line and learning the track more and the other half the guys just making the car a lot faster and easier to drive. The good news is our pace was really consistent in qualifying. I think we've got a good race car - if we can race smart like we typically do and hopefully stay out of trouble, we'll have a good finish.

"On average pace, we probably picked up three-quarters of a second from this morning. The car was definitely easier to drive, but maybe it was just the clouds coming over and taking 30 degrees out of the million-degree track."

Von Moltke Fastest 'Gentleman' (Updated Friday at 2:30 p.m.)

Dion von Moltke was fastest in Friday's Jim Trueman Award practice, running a lap of 113.957 (111.957 mph) in the No. 45 BMW Riley fielded by Orbit Racing.

"It's a bit different from the Volkswagen GTI," said von Moltke, who races for APR Motorsport in the Grand-Am KONI Sports Car Challenge. "Orbit prepared a perfect car, and Dinan has provided an amazing engine.  That makes my job kind of easy. Homestead is not the most difficult track, but it has things here and there that causes you to pick up time. I really like driving the Daytona Prototypes. They're a blast. They pull pretty high Gs around the banking here, and they're fun to drive. It's hot here, but luckily we've got cool suits and helmet blowers to keep us comfortable. It's going to be hot and it will be a long stint, but it will be possible."

Von Moltke practiced for the Brumos Porsche 250 at Daytona in July in a Daytona Prototype, but that car lost an engine shortly after the green flag and he never got to drive in the race. 

Thursday Practice Quotes (Updated Thursday at 6:30 p.m.)

Scott Pruett: "We were real pleased with how it was when we unloaded. We have so much time today, so our track time is limited to the number of tires. We have two and a half hours, and five sets of tires. We need three sets of tires for the race, so you get one set to practice and one to qualify. We've been fast right out of the box at every race we've been to this year, and the same thing here. The car was reasonable right out of the box and now we're fine-tuning it. This is pretty unique with all the heat. We haven't had this much heat here before. Because of that, the track loses some grip and the engines don't have as much horsepower. We have to adapt to it a little differently. We're making some changes, and looking to see what we need to do to get a more consistent car running 50 laps on a set of tires, because that's what a stint is - we've got to go 50 laps on a set of tires and still have good speed. "There's only one lap that counts in racing, and that's the last one - and it's typically run on a set of tires that are junk. Our focus is trying to get the most out of the car on old tires.
"Everybody's in the same boat (with the heat). It's pretty miserable, and it will be like this for the next few days. All of the drivers here have their work cut out for them - it will be hot."

Alex Gurney: "Hopefully the heat won't play a role in the championship, but it's very possible. The longer you are in these cars, the hotter you get. It's certainly going to be that way on race day. The thermometer said 109 in our pit, so you've got to add about 30 degrees to that in the car. Everybody works on their cooling in their cars, and we're OK on that, but we could be better. Hopefully, that won't be the deciding factor in the championship. So far, everything's going OK for us."

Max Angelelli: "The car is good. We will fight for the championship. We will be right there. How the car will run in the heat is the question mark, how long it can last on a set of tires and run a proper, competitive lap time compared to the others. I think we can have a good car for qualifying.I'm sure it will be strong at the beginning of every single set of tires, but I don't know how it be at the end of the stint, because everybody seems to be pretty strong on that, maybe better than us. "

Christophe Bouchut: "I'm very happy. I knew before we went out that we could be competitive because we did some testing here in March and I captured the best time. I was not happy at first with the setup, but the big surprise was that every other team was worse than us. I'm more happy for the team, they were all working real good together. Don't forget that this team is brand new and we take a long time to discover everything. Now, everybody knows they've got to work together. Now it's time to fight to be the best on the track."

Jon Fogarty: "I haven't thought about the pole streak (he has won four in a row and five in six races). The focus has been on the bigger picture. Nonetheless, we want to approach this like we do every race weekend, so that's my goal, to get the pole. I'm not thinking about what we've done. I'm thinking about what we need to do to maximize points, just like every race weekend. Certainly, getting the pole is a step in the right direction. Five in a row would be nice, six on the season - 50 percent - would be good. You can't let down your guard in this series. We don't know how to operate in any other fashion, for the honest truth. We don't want to change our procedures - we don't know how to operate in any other manner than going out and try to win."

Robin Liddell: "Understandingly, everybody has problems dialing in at this track, because it's a difficult track to get the car working well. We're pretty happy so far. We set a good time on new tires, but we're more interested on what the car is doing on old tires. We seem to be pretty consistent. Maybe we need to improve a little on old tires, but generally we're pretty happy. It's going to be a little hotter here than what we're used to running here and the humidity is high, obviously. It's a question of managing rear tires because we're going to be coming off slow corners in first and second gears. Drivers are going to get fatigued. Running without the gravel traps here is going to be a positive, but there will probably be fewer yellows, so there will be less time to cool down if you're getting hot or flustered. The heat will play a part later in the race."

Ortiz, Sweeney to Debut with Battery Tender/MCM (Updated Thursday at 1:20 p.m.)

Bryan Ortiz and Mike Sweeney, regulars in the Grand-Am KONI Sports Car Challenge, will make their Rolex Series debut in the No. 21 MCM Racing/Battery Tender Pontiac GTO.R.

Today's practice will be the first time in a Rolex Series car for Ortiz, who has yet to test, while Sweeney tested twice in that car.

"I'm very excited for the opportunity to drive with Mike Sweeney and the whole team," Ortiz said. "This is not the biggest budget team but they've got a good car, and they've done very good with what they've got."

Sweeney said he's been banking up his good luck after sitting out last weekend's KONI finale at VIR when his APR Motorsport VW GTI was eliminated in a fire during practice.

"We've spent a long time putting this deal together," Sweeney said. "This is a nice car to be in for our Rolex debut. The team has been strong, and should be in good shape for this weekend. Look for the 'newbies' to do good."

"Ozz Negri weather"? (Updated Thursday at 12:45 p.m.)

Rolex Series competitors are bracing for perhaps the hottest conditions of the season for Saturday's Grand Prix of Miami - "Ozz Negri weather," one of them said.

Negri agrees.

"Look, I'm not even sweating," the Michael Shank Racing driver said.

Negri and teammate John Pew frequently race karts on the parking lot course at Homestead-Miami Speedway, wearing full gear on hot days. They both enjoy racing in the heat.

It's Going To Be Hot! (Updated Thursday at 10:05 a.m.)

Teams are unloading in the paddock at Homestead-Miami Speedway, preparing for today's opening practice session from 2-4:30 p.m. It's already 87 degrees (feels like 99!) and highs are expected to hit the mid-90s.

"I have no problem when it's hot and nasty," Scott Pruett said on Tuesday's Grand-Am Weekly.